Fireball video: Fireball booms across US on Halloween - 'Brightest shooting star of my life'
The spooky season kicked off with a bang on Halloween when residents across nine states witnessed a huge fireball. The meteor was so big and bright that it could be seen in the north of Michigan, all the way down to Georgia, more than 900 kilometres away.
Witnesses described the booming fireball as having a plethora of colours, mainly blue, white and green, coming from the main body as it hit Earth's atmosphere.
Almost 200 people flocked to the International Meteor Organisation (IMO) to report their sightings.
This video of the fireball is from April Bishop in Hayden. Started burning up about 51 miles above Jacksonville AL moving to the west of south at 44,800 miles per hour. Looks like it disintegrated 20 miles above Eastaboga (between Pell City and Anniston) shortly before 6p CT pic.twitter.com/NYJOinyZRk
— James Spann (@spann) November 2, 2020
Do fireballs make a sound?
One video captured by a security camera shows the fireball seemingly getting bigger and bigger as it approaches the surface before simply disappearing.
Kim said: "This was the longest & brightest 'shooting star' I have ever seen."
Shawna added: "Seemed closer than any other falling star or fireball I'd ever seen.
"Had a white to light yellow head with a green to blue tail and seemed to have a white streak behind it but not a long one.
"I thought it was a firecracker at first but it didn't make sense to be falling and I never heard a noise."
Shae reported to the IMO: "I have never seen anything like it in my life!"
© IMOFireball video: This map shows reported sightings of the fireball
Tracy added: "Looked like the brightest shooting star in my life."
Rhonda stated: "Never saw anything like this - it was big, bright, & colourful. Compared to other shooting stars or meteor showers, this looked much closer. Only lasted about 4 seconds, then simply vanished!"
Fireballs are the result of meteors hitting the atmosphere.
R.C.